HARRY REICHER Barrister at Law,
Australia and England; Adjunct Professor of Law, University of
Pennsylvania Law School; Director of International Affairs and
Representative to the United Nations, Agudath Israel World
Organization 84 William Street New York, NY 10038 (212) 797-9000

I am pleased to transmit herewith Agudath Israel
World Organization's submission in the captioned proceeding, which
we respectfully ask you to consider as you develop your
forthcoming recommendation to Judge Korman. The submission
consists of two parts. The first is in the nature of a legal
brief, setting forth the legal, moral and historical bases for
inclusion in the distribution plan for the Settlement Fund, to the
maximum extent possible, of yeshivos and kehilos which were sought
to be destroyed during the Holocaust, and which have rebuilt
themselves, in various forms and in various parts of the world,
since the Second World War. The second part of our submission,
presented as an appendix to the brief, is a progress report on,
and excerpts from, the first stage of an historical research
project recently undertaken by AIWO to study the centers of Torah
learning and chassidus that were destroyed in Europe, and the
rebuilding of such centers in the years since 1945. A cautionary
note with respect to this appendix, if I may: While Stage One of
our Research Project has already yielded a substantial volume of
extremely valuable raw material and information that provides
significant support for the contentions we advance in our
submission, the overall research project is still very much in the
nature of work in progress. Thus, while we respect the importance
of having submissions made to you posted on the web site
associated with the case, should you decide to post AIWO's
submission, our preference would be that you limit such posting to
the brief itself, and omit the appended supporting material in its
current form. AIWO will gladly make the appendix available to
interested parties who contact us; our only concern is that this
preliminary work in progress not be perceived by the broad masses
of casual Internet browsers as a comprehensive final product.

In making this submission to you, AIWO recognizes
the historic nature of your work and the weight of the decisions
that lie before you. Please rest assured that you carry with you
our best wishes in your arduous task, and the sincere hope that
you will be endowed with the necessary wisdom and understanding to
develop the best and most equitable recommendations.

Sincerely,

(Prof) Harry ReicherDirector of International
Affairs

and Representative to the United
NationsHR/skEnclosures

cc: Shari C. Reig, Esq.

In The
United States District Court
For the Eastern District of New
YorkMaster Docket No.CV-96-4849(ERK) (MDG)
(Consolidated
with CV 96-5161and CV-97-461)

AGUDATH ISRAEL WORLD ORGANIZATIONSUBMISSION
TO SPECIAL MASTER JUDAH GRIBETZ

INTRODUCTION: THE HISTORIC NATURE OF THESE
PROCEEDINGS

It is difficult to imagine a court proceeding
operating, at once, at two different levels, more so than is the
case in this litigation.

At one level, it is a case that has all the normal
trappings of litigation in court, inasmuch as documents have been
filed, claims are made and monetary relief is sought - the task of
the Court being to adjudicate among the competing legal arguments.
At the same time, though, one term which appears in the court
papers - Holocaust - utterly transforms the case;it leads it
to assume historical and moral proportions, and the Court's task
is transformed into providing a measure of justice - however small
and inadequate - in the widest and deepest sense of that term, in
respect of an event in history which itself assumed, and continues
to maintain, cosmic proportions.

At one level, too, the plaintiffs in the case, as in
every litigation, are legal persons recognized by the law and
named in the court papers. But in a deeper, metaphorical sense,
and to draw on the powerful imagery invoked by Mr. Gideon Hausner,
the Attorney General of Israel, when he opened the case for the
prosecution in the trial of Adolf Eichmann, six million plaintiffs
are, in spirit, looking over the shoulders of the parties and,
ultimately, the Court.

This submission to the Court, while presented in a
form appropriate to the first level, is framed with the deeper
level very much in mind.

AGUDATH ISRAEL WORLD ORGANIZATION AND ITS
ROLE IN THE PROCEEDINGS

Agudath Israel World Organization (AIWO) is an
88-year-old confederation of Orthodox Jewish communities in
different parts of the world. It has a long and distinguished
record in the realm of international human rights, with particular
emphasis on freedom of religion, as well as matters relating to
culture and education. For over 50 years, since 1948, it has
enjoyed consultative status with the United Nations, under Article
71 of the U.N. Charter.

AIWO was founded in Poland in 1912, and before the
Second World War had active national constituent organizations in
a range of European countries. Today, its national organizations
function in Israel, the United States, England, Belgium, Holland,
Switzerland, Mexico, Argentina, Russia, Austria, Canada, Ukraine
and Moldova. In addition, it has representation and/or
constituencies in numerous other countries.

AIWO is a constituent member of the Conference on
Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (colloquially known as "the
Claims Conference"), and also of the World Jewish Restitution
Organization (WJRO). The latter organization is designated in the
Settlement Agreement as both an intervening party as well as a
representative of the Settlement Classes, and the WJRO is itself
defined to include "all of its constituent bodies" -
including, that is, AIWO.

In this submission (which is independent of and
supplemental to the submission of the WJRO, and reflects the
particular perspective of AIWO and its constituency), AIWO
advocates as follows: consideration, and inclusion in distribution
plans for the Settlement Fund, to the maximum extent possible, of
yeshivos (schools and institutes of Torah studies) and kehilos
(religious congregations or communities defining themselves by
reference to some common geographic, social or religious bond)
which were sought to be destroyed during the Holocaust, and which
have rebuilt themselves, in various forms and in various parts of
the world, since the Second World War.

AIWO's purpose in this submission is to explain the
significant moral and historical bases which underlie the claim
for substantial Settlement Fund distribution to the aforementioned
yeshivos and kehilos, as well as those legal aspects of the
Settlement Agreement that underpin it.

AIWO'S CONTENTION IN THESE PROCEEDINGS

AIWO's contention, as elaborated below, is twofold:
The first relates to the Looted Assets Class, under the terms
of the Settlement Agreement. There is no question that yeshivos
and kehilos were targeted by the Nazis for persecution and
destruction, and that they had significant tangible assets that
were looted by the Nazis, including valuable artifacts of
religious life. If the Court holds that, in order to fall within
the Looted Assets Class, it is unnecessary to demonstrate a clear
evidentiary nexus between specific looted assets and the
Releasees, then, it is submitted, yeshivos and kehilos which were
sought to be destroyed during the Holocaust and were subsequently
re-established after the War - either directly or through
successor entities - qualify as members of the Looted Assets
Class, and therefore qualify for part of the Settlement Amount on
that basis.

Further, and alternatively, if any amount of the
Settlement Fund remains as a residual, after satisfying the claims
of the Settlement Classes, yeshivos and kehilos that were sought
to be destroyed during the Holocaust, and have rebuilt themselves
in the years since the Second World War, have a profound moral
claim thereto. They played a central role in pre-War European
Jewish life; they were clearly targeted for persecution and
destruction by the Nazis; they have labored assiduously and
heroically to rebuild themselves in the post-War era; they play a
vital role in contemporary Jewish life; and they serve as a
central factor - perhaps the central factor - in ensuring Jewish
continuity for generations to come.

AIWO'S HISTORICAL RESEARCH PROJECT

In conjunction with the recently-formed Committee to
Preserve the Legacy of the Pre-War European Yeshivos, AIWO has
undertaken a project to research and prepare a major study of the
centers of Torah learning and chassidus that were destroyed in the
Holocaust, and the rebuilding of such centers in the years since
1945. This project, which began in September 1999 and is scheduled
to be completed over a period of a year or so, is at this point
still in the nature of a work in progress. We have assembled and
consulted with a team of a dozen historians and archivists, and
have contacted hundreds of yeshivos, seminaries, synagogues, and
kehilos in Israel, the United States, and other countries. To
date, as Stage One of the project nears completion, close to 300
submissions have been received from organizations representing
over 1,000 institutions around the world.

As an appendix to this submission, we are
simultaneously submitting more detailed information on this
research project, together with a compilation of selected case
studies produced by some of the major yeshivos and kehilos that
were targeted by the Nazis, suffered tremendous losses during the
Holocaust, and have rebuilt themselves after the war.

Preliminary findings of the project suggest
that:There were as many as 800 yeshivos for boys and young men
in pre-War Europe, at elementary, secondary and post-secondary
levels (both accredited as well as non- accredited), serving a
student population in excess of 200,000;Further, the
equivalent network of Bais Yaakov girls' schools encompassed some
250 institutions, with a student population of approximately
40,000 students;There were several million observant Orthodox
Jews who affiliated with several thousand European kehilos, and of
the individual Jews, in excess of 3 million are estimated to have
perished in the Holocaust. The latter figure is based on the
expert opinion of the eminent Holocaust historian, Dr. Michael
Berenbaum, who concludes that "we can say with certainty that
a majority of the Jews who were murdered [in the Holocaust]
-- somewhere between 50-70 percent -- were Orthodox." (Dr.
Berenbaum summarizes his findings in a February 23, 2000 letter
addressed to AIWO's Professor Harry Reicher, a copy of which is
appended hereto as Exhibit A.)

Despite the devastating destruction suffered by
Jewish communities during the Holocaust, a small group of
determined survivors managed to rebuild many of the yeshivos and
kehilos that had existed in Europe. In Israel and in the United
States, there are today hundreds of such rebuilt institutions
serving many thousands of students and kehila members. And in the
last ten years, following the collapse of communism, there has
been a remarkable rebirth of vibrant Jewish schools and
communities in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

THE MORAL BASIS FOR THE CLAIM ADVANCED HEREIN

AIWO acknowledges, and fully endorses, the
significant moral claim that Holocaust survivors themselves
possess with respect to restitution funds. Indeed, many of AIWO's
constituents are survivors, and have benefited from various
restitution programs administered by such groups as the Claims
Conference and the WJRO. This is as it should be. Those who had
their possessions taken, their surroundings destroyed and their
lives uprooted, and who were forced to rebuild from the ashes,
surely stand on firm moral ground in laying claim to restitution.

AIWO submits that the same moral principle applies
with equal force with respect to yeshivos and kehilos that had
their possessions taken, their surroundings destroyed and
institutions uprooted, and that were forced to rebuild from the
ashes. Indeed, as elaborated below, in certain respects the claim
on restitution funding of these yeshivos and kehilos occupies a
uniquely compelling moral plane.

In this context, an underlying point is critical:
Just as the Nazis sought to exterminate all individual Jews (and
tragically succeeded to the extent of 6,000,000), so too did they
seek to destroy a whole culture, or way of life, as embodied in
the educational and communal institutions that promoted that
uniquely Jewish way of life. And it is this fact that underpins,
in a moral and historical sense, the inclusion of yeshivos and
kehilos (among others) in the legal definition of Victims and
Targets of Nazi Persecution.

Indeed, central to the Nazis' aim of destroying the
Jewish people was the object of destroying Jewish learning and
education, because they identified the classical Jewish texts as
the source of the essential Jewish character.

Thus, Hitler's chief ideologue, Alfred Rosenberg,
writing in 1930, and searching to locate the underlying character
of the Jew, pointed to the Talmud itself, as well as the Shulchan
Aruch (code of Jewish law), both of which are central texts at the
heart of a yeshiva curriculum. "The honorless character of
the Jew", he wrote, "[is] embodied in the Talmud and in
Shulchan- Aruch" (Rosenberg, The Myth of the Twentieth
Century: An Evaluation of the Spiritual - Intellectual
Confrontations of Our Age (English translation by Vivian Bird)
(Newport Beach, California, 1982), p. 368.)

In addition, the Nazis trained their destructive
sights on Jewish learning because they perceived in Jewish
education, as personified by Jewish educators, the "threat"
(i.e. promise) of Jewish survival and continuity. This perception
is reflected in a directive issued by the German Highest Security
Office, dated October 25, 1940, prohibiting Jewish emigration from
occupied Poland on the ground that an influx of Eastern European
"Rabbiner", "Talmud-lehrer" and "Orthodox
ostjuden" could foster "geistige erneuerung"
(spiritual renewal) among American Jewry. (The October 25, 1940
directive is quoted in a November 23, 1940 circular of the
Government of the German Governor of Poland to the district
governors of German-annexed Poland. A copy of a transcript of this
circular, which was discovered by the Israeli historian Moshe
Prager, together with a rough translation thereof, is appended
hereto as Exhibit B.)

The Nazis were evil, but they were not dumb. They
understood that, more than anything else, Jewish education would
guarantee Jewish continuity and Jewish survival - and, conversely,
that their nefarious "Final Solution" objective could be
furthered even in a country like the United States, if they could
only prevent the rabbis and Talmud teachers from heading a
spiritual renewal of the rapidly-assimilating Jewish masses.

Sadly, the Nazis' evil insight has proven
substantially accurate. Where there has been no Jewish education,
there has been rampant Jewish assimilation. Indeed, experience in
the United States has shown that intensive Jewish education is the
best guarantor of preserving Jewish identity and affiliation; the
less rigorous the Jewish educational experience, the less likely
the assurance of Jewish continuity. As Peter Beinart observed, in
"The Rise of Jewish Schools", in the October 1999
Atlantic Monthly:

" [T]he supplementary [after school or Sunday]
schools were supposed to inculcate sufficient Jewish identity to
prevent intermarriage. Yet in 1990 the highly publicized National
Jewish Population Survey made it abundantly clear that they had
not. According to the NJPS, more than half of all Jews married
between 1985 and 1990 married gentiles, and subsequent research
has shown that graduates of supplementary schools are more than
twice as likely as graduates of full-time Jewish schools to marry
outside their faith."

Similarly, a major study by the Louis Guttman Israel
Institute of Applied Social Research, Jewish Involvement of the
Baby Boom Generation: Interrogating the 1990 National Jewish
Population Survey, concluded in 1993 that "Jewish day schools
are the best vehicle for implementing Jewish involvement and are
the only type of Jewish education that stands against the very
rapidly growing rate of intermarriage" in the United States.
And the recently-published study, A Census of Jewish Day Schools
in the United States, by Dr. Marvin Schick (Avi Chai, January
2000), proclaims, in its opening paragraphs:

"After being scorned and spurned for nearly all
of this century as anachronistic institutions unsuitable for the
American Jewish environment, day schools [a term which encompasses
both yeshivos as well as day schools] have emerged as a
centerpiece of the communal strategy to promote Jewish identity
and ensure Jewish continuity. Everywhere, Federations and private
Jewish foundations have placed day school education high on their
agenda, at times employing rhetoric about the importance of
religious Jewish education that for decades was the exclusive
province of Orthodox Jews.

"This change in attitude was spurred largely -
but not exclusively - by the frightening statistics of Jewish loss
conveyed by the 1990 National Jewish Population Survey. The most
shocking news was, of course, the report that the intermarriage
rate had risen above 50%. Other indicators of identity and
commitment pointed in the same direction of Jewish loss. Clearly,
there was a need to change course, to seek out and support
activities that held the promise that somehow the trend toward
Judaic abandonment could be slowed and perhaps, in some instances,
even reversed. Not surprisingly, day schools were embraced as
institutions that could provide a secure foundation for the Jewish
future of young Jews at risk."(p.1.)

It is only fitting and appropriate, therefore, as an
act of moral symmetry, that the very Jewish education that
guarantees survival of the Jewish people should be assisted out of
funds paid by way of compensation from economic allies of the
Nazis. A decision along these lines by the Court would also
constitute a cogent affirmation of education as the underlying
guarantor of Jewish continuity.

Such a decision would further bring us full circle
to the yeshivos and kehilos that were sought to be destroyed. The
AIWO research project, even in its current preliminary stage,
graphically demonstrates how the yeshivos and kehilos have
re-built themselves, in Israel, the United States, in Europe and
elsewhere. So much so, that to walk through the streets of
Jerusalem and Bnei Brak, Williamsburgh and Boro Park, Toronto and
Los Angeles, London and Antwerp, is to walk across a map of
pre-War Europe; the names of cities and towns have been re-planted
there in the form of yeshivos and kehilos that proudly bear their
names, and represent what they stood for. It is in these
institutions in these cities, as well as in other cities around
the world, that the institutional victims and targets of Nazi
persecution can be found today, and that the ultimate victory over
Nazi ideology is most eloquently evident.

Deserving special note are the many institutions
that have been rebuilt in Poland, Hungary, Russia, Ukraine and
numerous other places in Eastern Europe where 55 years ago there
was only Jewish ruin and destruction. In the former Soviet Union
alone, there are now well over a dozen major Jewish schools
serving several thousand students; in Moscow, St. Petersburg,
Kiev, Odessa and elsewhere, Jewish communal institutions that were
twin victims of Nazism and Communism are now being resurrected.
Hungarian Jewry, too, has experienced revival through the
establishment of yeshivos and Jewish communal institutions; this
remarkable development is the subject of one of the case studies
in AIWO's historical research project and appears in the appendix
submitted herewith. Just recently, as reported in The Jerusalem
Post of February 18, 2000, an umbrella organization--the Union of
Jewish Religious Communities of Eastern Europe--has been formed to
represent the over 300 communities (comprising close to four
million Jews) of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan,
Croatia, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Lithuania and
Uzbekistan. Restitution funding directed at the Jewish citizens of
these countries should not overlook the Jewish institutions of
these countries.

FITTING THE YESHIVOS AND KEHILOS INTO THE
SETTLEMENT STRUCTURE:

THE LOOTED ASSETS CLASSThe second of the
five Settlement Classes is described in the Settlement Agreement
as follows: "The Looted Assets Class consists of Victims or
Targets of Nazi Persecution and their heirs, successors,
administrators, executors, affiliates, and assigns who have or at
any time have asserted, assert, or may in the future seek to
assert Claims against any Releasee for relief of any kind
whatsoever relating to or arising in any way from Looted Assets or
Cloaked Assets or any effort to recover Looted Assets or Cloaked
Assets." (Clause 8.2(b))

The first critical phrase here is "Victim or
Target of Nazi Persecution", and this is defined in Clause 1
to mean:

"any individual, corporation, partnership, sole
proprietorship, unincorporated association, community,
congregation, group, organization, or other entity persecuted or
targeted for persecution by the Nazi Regime because they were or
were believed to be Jewish"(emphasis supplied)

Taking yeshivos that were destroyed in the
Holocaust, and subsequently rebuilt in the post-World War II era
(and the same applies, mutatis mutandis, to kehilos, as Stage One
of the AIWO Historical Research Project demonstrates):They
clearly fall within one or more of the emphasized terms in the
definition of "Victims or Targets of Nazi
Persecution";Further, in their post-War incarnations they
are at a minimum "heirs", "successors" or
"affiliates" of their pre-War antecedent entities. The
foundation for (a) and (b) above is that they exhibit all, or
alternatively some combination, of the following features of the
pre-War entities: (i) the same name;(ii) the same Rosh(ei)
Hayeshivah, or Dean(s);(iii) alternatively to (ii), Roshe(ei)
Hayeshivah who is/are sons, sons-in-law, lineal descendants,
disciples or students of the pre-War Rosh(ei) Hayeshivah;(iv)
the same guiding philosophy;(v) the same approach to
study;(vi) the same liturgy in prayers;(vii) other common
features.

In each case, the yeshiva was persecuted, or
targeted for persecution, by the Nazi regime, because it was
Jewish. Indeed, as noted above, Jewish education was a special
target of the Nazis' "Master Plan".

Further, for purposes of the definition of the
"Looted Assets Class", yeshivos which were destroyed
during the Holocaust, and have subsequently been rebuilt in the
post-War era, are among those who either have at any time
asserted, or assert, or may in the future seek to assert, claims
against any Releasee in relation to "Looted Assets" or
"Cloaked Assets".

The term "Looted Assets" is defined in
Clause 1 to mean:"Assets actually or allegedly belonging
in whole or in part to Victims or Targets of Nazi Persecution that
were actually or allegedly stolen, expropriated, Aryanized,
confiscated, or that were otherwise wrongfully taken by, at the
request, or under the auspices, of, the Nazi Regime."

Yeshivos and kehilos, no less than individuals,
owned tangible assets that were looted by the Nazis. Every yeshiva
in Europe had, at the very least, and apart from anything else,
the basic ritual objects used in the daily, weekly and annual
cycles of Jewish religious life and practice - Torah scrolls, holy
books, libraries, kiddush cups, candlestick holders, Torah crowns
and breastplates, and so on. Many of these objects were made of
precious metals and had considerable monetary value aside from
their intrinsic religious value.

It is accepted that, by virtue of a combination of
the definitions of "Looted Assets" and "The Looted
Assets Class", it is necessary to demonstrate a nexus between
specific assets from (in this case) yeshivos (as well as kehilos),
on the one hand, and the Releasees, on the other. That nexus, we
submit, need not be established by direct evidence; it can also be
established by circumstantial evidence:

"Under appropriate circumstances,
circumstantial evidence may be given the same weight as direct
evidence. In criminal and civil cases, issues may be established
by, and verdicts founded on, circumstantial evidence - that is, by
inferences from established facts - when no direct evidence is
available, so long as there exists a logical and convincing
connection between the facts established and the conclusion
[inferred]." 29A Am.Jur. 2d, Evidence, Sec. 1434.

Here, while there may be a dearth of direct and
unambiguous evidence of specific assets that were looted from
yeshivos (as well as kehilos), and that directly or indirectly
found their way to the Releasees, it is submitted that there is
ample circumstantial evidence demonstrating the necessary nexus,
as follows:

The Nazis Systematically Looted the Property of
Their Victims

Simply stated, "The leaders of the Third Reich
systematically robbed their victims and exploited looted
property." Independent Commission of Experts: Switzerland -
Second World War, Switzerland and Gold Transactions in the Second
World War: Interim Report (Bern, 1998) [hereinafter "Bergier
Interim Report"] (Abbreviated version, p.7.) This was a
matter of policy for the Nazis, as explained by Ambassador Stuart
Eizenstat in U.S. and Allied Efforts to Recover and Restore Gold
and Other Assets Stolen or Hidden by Germany During World War II
(1997):

"The massive and systematic plundering of gold
and other assets from conquered nations and Nazi victims was no
rogue operation. It was essential to the financing of the German
war machine. The Reichsbank itself - the central bank of the
German state - was a knowing and integral participant." (p.
iv.)

Looted Assets Were Shipped to Berlin, Where
Silver and Gold Were Melted Down

"In Berlin, Reichsbank officials struggled to
cope with the mountain of Nazi booty, as vaults and corridors were
filled to overflowing with war plunder. It was simple to send
looted gold from concentration camp victims to the Reichsbank in
Berlin to be melted down, but works of art and jewelry sometimes
needed to be sold in their original condition to swell the coffers
of the SS." Adam LeBor, Hitler's Secret Bankers: The Myth of
Swiss Neutrality During the Holocaust (Secaucus, New Jersey 1997),
p.43.

Much of the Silver and Gold Went Through Banks in
Switzerland

"As well as supplying Berliners with a supply
of cheap looted jewelry and gold and silver valuables, the Melmer
system was also designed to sell war booty abroad, and so acquire
the vital foreign currency the Third Reich needed to keep the Nazi
war machine going. The Reichsbank memo concludes, 'Regarding the
large accumulation of foreign exchange expected through sales of
such articles abroad, and the not inconsiderable accumulation of
gold and silver from smelting of unexported items, prompt
establishment of a uniform arrangement for handling these items is
required.' That vital foreign exchange would, of course, be
purchased through Swiss banks." (LeBor, p 46)

Shipping Looted Assets to Switzerland was
Critical for the Nazis

"Switzerland was essential for the Nazis. It
was a warehouse of currency. The Nazis were dealing with the Swiss
banks from the very beginning. The main economic collaborators of
the German Reich, the bankers, the brokers, the insurance people,
were working hand in hand with Swiss entities. The bottom line was
that they needed that one thing: hard cash. And there was only one
place they could find it, in Switzerland, and they knew they could
only get it if they left the Swiss alone.'" (LeBor, p. 56,
quoting Marc Masurovksy, consultant historian to the U.S. Senate
Banking Committee on Switzerland and looted Nazi assets.)

The Bergier Interim Report came to the same
conclusion:"Foreign exchange control and economic warfare
increasingly restricted international currency transactions so
that, in the end, only the Swiss franc remained convertible. Swiss
francs which the German government received in exchange for its
gold supplies were therefore of great importance for the war
economy, diplomacy, and intelligence services." (p. 7.)

The chain of logic and historical facts thus
furnishes a circumstantial basis for interpreting the Looted
Assets Class broadly, without requiring specific evidence of a
direct nexus between any given claimant's assets and the Swiss
banks. If the Court is inclined to accept such evidence, yeshivos
and kehilos must be considered part of the class as well.
Alternatively, as a result of hitherto unknown or unrevealed
evidentiary material coming to light at some time in the future,
yeshivos and kehilos "may in the future seek to assert claims
against any Releasee" - again, no less so than any other
claimant.

THE CLAIM OF YESHIVOS AND KEHILOS TO A SHARE OF
ANY RESIDUAL REMAINING AFTER SATISFYING THE CLAIMS OF THE
SETTLEMENT CLASSES

Whether or not yeshivos and kehilos are deemed to
fall within the Looted Assets Class, there are in any event cogent
reasons to give them substantial consideration as high priority
beneficiaries of any residual funds:

As noted above, yeshivos and kehilos are recognized
by the Settlement Agreement as being victims and targets of Nazi
persecution;

But for the destruction of historical records that
would demonstrate that significant assets from these yeshivos and
kehilos ended up in Swiss banks, yeshivos and kehilos would
certainly fall within the Looted Assets Class;

The yeshivos and kehilos of today are centrally
involved in rebuilding what the Nazis sought to destroy. According
to the distinguished Holocaust historian Dr. Michael Berenbaum,
whose analysis is referred to above, 50-70% of the 6 million Jews
murdered by the Nazis were Orthodox (see Exhibit A). These
victims, whose bank accounts and looted assets thus probably form
the bulk of what has until now remained in Switzerland, lived and
died as observant Jews. It is today's Orthodox institutions of
education and communal life that are doing the most to ensure the
survival and continuity of the very way of life that those
victims, had they been given the opportunity, would have sought to
perpetuate. We do not presume to speak with certainty, but it
stands to reason that those victims would have wanted a
significant portion of their assets to be distributed to these
institutions.

In this context, it is relevant to note, and take
into account, that many other causes and institutions devoted to
Holocaust-related activities are already being generously funded
by governments, and from other official sources such as the Claims
Conference. Yeshivos and kehilos, in contrast, have thus far not
benefited from any of the restitution-related funding streams.
This failure to include the very educational and communal
institutions that occupied such a central role in pre-War Jewish
Europe, that have heroically re-established themselves in the
post-War era, and that furnish the greatest hope for ongoing
Jewish continuity, is both glaring and indefensible.

These institutions are at once both the most ignored
and yet perhaps the most needy. Dr. Marvin Schick and Jeremy
Dauber's study, The Financing of Jewish Day Schools (Avi Chai
Foundation, 1997), demonstrated that yeshiva day schools in the
United States are severely underfunded in nearly every aspect of
their operations, and do not receive adequate assistance from
Jewish federations around the country. Dr. Schick's more recent
study of Jewish day schools, A Census of Jewish Day Schools in the
United States, (Avi Chai Foundation, January 2000), notes that in
the years ahead:

" there will be a need for thousands of
additional [classroom] seats. In the first decade of the century
that is about to begin, there likely will be as many as
30,000--and perhaps more--additional day school students, a
circumstance that will pose a challenge to school officials and
communal leaders. Many day schools--especially the larger
institutions--are already operating at or near capacity, and some
are above capacity."

The same growth pattern, and the same need, are
evident in Israel, Europe and other parts of the world where Jews
reside and seek to educate their children in a manner that will
carry forward the glorious tradition and heritage that was sought
to be destroyed in the Holocaust.

This Settlement offers the Court an opportunity to
help establish the central moral position of yeshivos and kehilos
within the overall restitution framework.

CONCLUSION

By approaching its task in this way, the Court will
effectively be addressing, not only the strictly legal dimension
to this case, but also, in a significant and meaningful way, the
moral and historical dimensions as well.

HARRY REICHERBarrister at Law,
Australiaand England; Adjunct Professor of Law,University
of Pennsylvania Law School;Director of International Affairs
andRepresentative to the United Nations,Agudath Israel
World Organization84 William StreetNew York, NY
10038(212) 797-9000